Leymah Gbowee Keynote Speaker

Leymah Gbowee is a keynote speaker who was the recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.  Gbowee is best known as a Liberian peace activist, trained social worker and women’s rights advocate. She is also the Founder and current President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa. She founded the Liberia Reconciliation Initiative, and is the Co-founder and former Executive Director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSEN-A). She is also a founding member and former Liberia Coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for peace building (WIPNET/WANEP).

Gbowee currently serves as a member of the High-Level Task Force for the International Conference on Population and Development. She is a board member of the Federation of Liberian Youth. Her leadership of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace – which brought together Christian and Muslim women in a non-violent movement that played a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s civil war in 2003 – is chronicled in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, and in the documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

In addition, Gbowee is the Newsweek Daily Beast’s Africa columnist. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Gbowee Peace Foundation and the PeaceJam Foundation, and she is a member of the African Women Leaders Network for Reproductive Health and Family Planning. She holds a M.A. in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, VA), and a Doctor of Laws (LLD) honoris causa from Rhodes University in South Africa and University of Alberta in Canada.